this morning on "early today," breaking his silence. in his first tv interview, george zimmerman tells his story about the night he killed trayvon martin. wild ride. a chinese taxi driver's attempt to detain a drunk driver backfires. and close encounter. a diver in florida has a terrifying face-to-face with a great white shark. captions paid for by nbc-universal television hello and good morning. i'm lynn berry. and today we begin with a deadly confrontation. the man who shot and killed trayvon martin is speaking out for the first time. in an interview with fox news channel sean hannity, george zimmerman, who's free on bail

while awaiting his trial, gave his accounts of what happened on that fateful february night. nbc's jay gray has the story. >> reporter: his message was clear and direct. >> i'm not a racist, and i'm not a murderer. >> reporter: in an interview on fox news channel hannity's show, george zimmerman discussed in detail the night he shot and killed trayvon martin, saying it was the unarmed teenager that initiated the deadly confrontation. >> he started bashing my head into the concrete sidewalk. i was -- as soon as he broke my nose, i started yelling for help. >> reporter: it was during that fight, he that both he and martin reached for your the gun strapped to zimmerman's waist, a gun he fired one time, taking the teenager's life. zimmerman said he didn't regret following martin that night or carrying a gun and that there's nothing he would have done differently. >> i feel it was all god's plan, and for me to secondguess it or

judge it -- immediately after the broadcast trayvon martin's father released this statement. we must worship a different god but because there's no way my god would want zimmerman to kill a teenage son. after the interview he had an apology for trayvon's parents. >> i'm sorry for burying their child. i can't imagine what it feels like and i pray for them daily. >> reporter: as he now prepares for what is sure to be an explosive murder trial. jay gray, nbc news. "the new york times" reports pentagon officials are in talks with the israeli government with what appears to be the imminent collapse of syrian president bashir al assad. he's against israeli's suggestion to destroy the weapons because it might prompt syrians to rally in defense of

assad. officials say wednesday's deadly bombing in damascus that killed the defense minister, the deputy, assad's brother-in-law, may turn out to be a turning point in the country's conflict. israel is retaliating against iran for the bombing of a tourist bus. at least eight people died in the attack on the bus in an airport in the resort city on the black sea. the israelis had just arrived on a flight from tel aviv in bulgaria. bulgaria's interior minister says a suspected suicide attacker was carrying a driver's license issued in the state of michigan and it with us the latest of overseas attacks that israel attributes to iran. iran has always denied involvement in the past. elsewhere london's metropolitan police have arrested three muslim men suspected of traveling to pakistan for terror training.

police say they intended to commit act ofrs terrorism. one woman has been charged with possession of documents likely to beous use to terrorism in the same operation. all four will appear in court today. pleesz say the arrests are not related to the upcoming london games which start a week from tomorrow. and now here's a look at some other stories making news early today in america. in florida a pair of armed robbers had the tables turn on them after storming into an internet cafe. the attackers were holding a baseball bat and a gun, but a 71-year-old customer pulled his own gun out and shot the robbers as he chased them out the door. both suspects were wounded and later arrested. in pennsylvania, a kidnapping victim made a daring escape from a moving van. he rolled to the ground and then ran toward police. he says he was grabbed right off the street, ordered to strip to his underwear, and threatened with death. police have identified one

suspect. in boston, just frightening moments for a woman in a wheelchair after she tumbled down an escalator at a transit stop. when someone tried to help her, she them fell out of the chair completely. transit workers say they only got to her as fast as they did because of newly installed vary lance cameras. she suffered minor injuries. >> in u.s. a gushing geyser. commuters had to dodge the geyser inside the building to make it to their trains. and high above it all high above the rock camera shows a skyline view of how fast the rain and hail slammed the city. it was epic. finally, off the coast of florida, watch out. yep. that is a great white shark. it is swimming a mere 15 feet from a diver. he had just gone into the water when the predator moved toward him. fortunately the man stayed calm

and then made it back to the boat. not before taking all of that footage. i would be like out the door. and now for a look at your national and regional weather, here's nbc meteorologist bill karins. is that wrong? he's getting the footage, which is wonderful because we get to show it but i would be nervous about becoming lunch. how about that weather yesterday. >> crazy day. the heat and thunderstorms. the breaking news is indianapolis, the poster child for our drought, finally got some rain. after literally a month and a half. they didn't get a lot. but there's more on the way. we're so happy in northern indiana right now. we're just getting drenched by these thunderstorms. we need this, plus, you know, ten days of this, but this is a start at least. chicago's picked up about 0.8. ft. wayne, indiana, a tenth. they're heading to toledo, south of detroit and eventually they should make their way toward indianapolis. what a day it was, along the

front running into the extremely hot hair from the southern new england all the way to the mid-atlantic. we had 348 storm reports throughout much of this reason that had that intense heat. how hot was it yesterday? 100 from hartford to new york. philly. baltimore was 104 yesterday. and all that heat that's in the central plains, unfortunately you're not the ones that are going to get it that need it. yesterday was 106. today 105 in st. louis. 105 in wichita. some of us are happy with the relief. others, not coming your way, not yet. that's a look at your national forecast. now here's a look at the weather outside your window. so we could see more showers and storms in the areas that got it yesterday. that front is slowly going to sag to the south. but from new york city to philly to baltimore, even d.c., there will be a chance of additional storms today. and look at the heat in the middle of the country. so the heat wave's not exactly ending for everyone unfortunately. >> unfortunately indeed. all right, bill. thanks so much. well, big blue boost its

outlook, ebay profits fly and burger bad guys. your early morning business headlines are straight ahead. plus, sorry ladies. signs are all pointing to george clooney, maybe off the market. coming up, walk-offs, a scary fall, and did you make money in the market yesterday? if so, i know why. you're watching "early today."

good morning and welcome back to "early today." i'm lynn berry, and here are some of your top headlines this morning. a new york times cbs news poll finds the presidential race a virtual tie with mitt romney, 47%, president obama, 46%. 20 op f the voters say they may change their mind by november. senator john mccain defended a top aide official.

mccain said bachmann's attacks have, quote, no logic, no basis, and no merit, and they need to stop now. meanwhile in an interview with "people" magazine, an a dean says she's proud to be married to former congressman anthony weaner despite the sexting scandal that led to his resignation. she said he did a stupid thing but said, quote, they have a normal family. this man was executed yesterday in texas. it was the first execution using one lethal drug instead of three due to shortages. >> in china, a taxi driver hung onto the hood of a drunk driver who had collided with this taxi cab. the drunk driver tried to escape but the taxi driver held on until he stopped at a karaoke bar and the police could make an arrest.

and now here is an early look at how wall street's going to kick off the day. the dow opened at 12, 908 after climbing 103. the s&p gained 9. the nasdaq spike third degree 2. taking a look at overseas trading this morning, in tokyo rose 68 points while in honk kang the hang seng skyrocketed 319. well, the s&p 500 leapt to its highest level wednesday as traders chose to ignore bad news and cherry pick the good news coming out of earnings. intel forecast its growth. the stock rose more than 3%. honeywell jumped almost 7% on healthy profits. >> emc jumped over 9% after reporting a preliminary second quarter profit and its vmware unit was up 12%. vivus jumped 12% after their weight loss drug.

rovi dropped. keep an eye today on ibm. big blue rose after hours after boosting its full year earnings outlook. also watch ebay, which also rose late on quarterly sales and profit that soared past estimates. in economic news, new u.s. home construction rose in june to the highest level in almost four years. elsewhere, capital one will pay $210 million to settle allegations it allowed call center vendors to use deceptive tactics to pressure or misleading consumers to pay for add-on products such as identity theft monitoring services. reuters reports soccer powerhouse manchester united will now launch its ipo on the new york stock exchange. and finally, hypervocal.com reports the vigilante hacking group embedded this website

photo to inform burger king of the identity of the poster seen standing on containers of shredded lettuce. he and two ohio co-workers have now been fired. thankfully big brother is watching. well, coming up, the padres double up, the royals walk off, and a major league first for one oakland a, plus, a blue jay goes all out but only comes up with burps and bruises. your early morning sports headlines are straight ahead. rain and relief for heat for some but if you're in the central plains, you're not so lucky. your forecast is coming up. you're watching "early today." [ male announcer ] want the most enjoyment from your home entertainment?

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good morning. if you're just waking up, this is "early today." and in sports, a marathon matchup between the dodgers and phillies yesterday ended in dramatic fashion. here's nbc's fred roggin with an early look at all your sports headlines. good morning. the dodgers' matt kemp missed 36 games with a pulled hamstring, made a return this week and the dodgers are glad he did. dodgers down one in the tenth. two down. runners on the corner. kemp with a shot to first. he was safe. dodgers tied in three. kemps first homer since returning from the dl, and it was a big one.

dodgers walked off with a 5-3 win in 12. that's not the only walk-off. in california, brandon hicks has never hit a home run until now. you just won the game and the a's downed the rangers, 4-3. are you starting to see a trend? another tied game, another walk-off homer. this time billy butler with the honors and the royals beat the mariners, 8-7. now in san diego you think if one player had two home runs their team would win, right? not so. matt downs hit a pair but that was it for houston. padres doubled up, 8 hch 4. mark teixeira a pop fly into foul territory. tumbled and fell hard onto the pavement. look at teixeira, he knew it was bad. lauri, no regard for his body. thankfully he was oklahoma, but he'll have a lot of bumps and bruises this morning. yanks won the game, 6-50.

finally if you made money in the stocks you might stank him. he rang the opening bell at the new york stock exchange. he'll have do it more often. the market was up. that's your early look at sports on "early today." i'm fred roggin. well, who is the highest paid actress on television, and what russell brand is saying about his recent divorce. your early morning entertainment headlines are straight ahead. plus, he may be a star in germany, but now for some reason here at home, there's a wash of people stealing an item with his image. you're watching "early today."

welcome back to "early today." the heat wave continues from dallas through all of oklahoma into kansas city. we are getting some relief with rain, though, from indiana, ohio, especially pennsylvania and west virginia during the day today. and as we go into tomorrow, we're going to continue to watch a chance for some rain, especially there in the mid-atlantic region. no such luck for the heat, though, in the central plains. it continues. well, if uy're watching us on nbc connecticut in hartford, connecticut, in another buy stamford, work up the courage to visit the subtle giants of the spider world. that's tarantulas alive and up close. that's your earth event of the day.

and now here's an early look at this morning's headlines in entertainment. hally barry is out testify hospital after suffering a head injury while on the movie set. tmz reports she had a possible concussion following a fall. sophia a very garcia, reality star kim kardashian came in second. eva longoria came in with $15 million thanks to the final season of ""desperate housewives."" in the first interview since his divorce was finalized, he said while katy perry is young, successful, and dedicated he was, quote, into the idea of marriage and having kids. as for not going after any of perry's $40 million in their setslement, brand said simply, quote, gievet a good job. yeah, he does. finally, is george clooney almost off the market? tmz reports both he and girlfriend stacy keebler flew their parents to italy for a

gathering at his villa. this comes to us from boston where in nearby summerville police are doing the unthinkable. they are hassling the hoff. say it ain't so, bill. cardboard cutouts featuring the icon are being swiped from stores. this is happening all across new england. now, this is part of an ad campaign, but fans seem to think it gives them license to just steal the super-sized likeness. as for the man himself, has el hoff says he's humbled. of course, he says that. the sponsor would rather you leave the signs be. police should maybe start in college dorm rooms. i think that's probably what's happening there. i'm lynn berry, and this is "early today," just your first stop of the day, today on your nbc station.

i was inside with my three children and it is pretty unbelievable to see this tree fall down. i'm just thankful nobody's hurt. >> some streets are still closed this morning as crews work to remove trees. and just like the storm earlier this month, flooding was another